The good news is that Michigan’s tax revenues this year may actually be a half billion dollars higher than was previously predicted. The bad news is, rather than offsetting some of the $470-per-pupil funding cut Governor Snyder proposes in his budget with the windfall, he wants to save it. “I don’t want to speculate on us having more dollars,” Snyder […]

Jesse Jackson was back in Benton Harbor yesterday, this time alongside Congressman John Conyers, Chair of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus Congressman Fred Durhal, Jr., Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, Benton Harbor Mayor Wilce Cook, and others. They announced that a lawsuit will soon be filed on behalf of Benton Harbor. Jackson says they will now file a lawsuit, challenging the […]

I have been writing pretty intensively about the dismissal of the Benton Harbor City Commission by the Emergency Financial Manager, Joe Harris. Like many of you, I am incensed at this draconian step being taken, a disenfranchisement of the residents of Benton Harbor and an abridgement of what I think most of us understand as democracy. Taxation without representation is […]

Last week, I wrote about the connection between Congressman Fred Upton, the Emergency Financial Manager takeover of Benton Harbor and Aubrey McClendon, a millionaire developer and owner of the Chesapeake Oil natural gas company. In the piece, I talked a bit about McClendon’s lawsuits against Saugatuck Township in their efforts to prevent McClendon from developing a piece of duneland at […]

Hi. I’m back again to talk about Netroots for the Troops, a project aimed at providing 600 CARE packages to men and women in the military who are stationed overseas. As I mentioned in my last blog about this, I have set up a team called “Team Eclectablog” (original, eh?) and have given myself a goal of raising $2,500 for […]

Last night on her show, Rachel Maddow connected some very important dots in the situation that led up to the Big Government TakeoverTM of Benton Harbor, Michigan by Joseph Harris, aka “The Czar of Benton Harbor”. But she didn’t connect ALL of them. In her piece we learn these facts about Benton Harbor and its twin city next door, St. […]

Mr. Secessionist himself, Texas Governor Rick Perry is asking for federal help: Gov. Rick Perry has appealed to President Barack Obama to declare the state a major disaster area as wildfires strike or threaten all but two of the state’s 254 counties… A “major disaster declaration” would make the state eligible for help in responding to and recovering from the […]

NOTE: I have an important update to this entry up titled “How Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is quietly & intentionally creating more Benton Harbors” that you may find of interest. NOTE 2: A second update is here: Benton Harbor Emergency Financial Mgr. gets right to work and shows how Harris is already at work, rejiggering two city development commissions. As […]

First of all, if you haven’t seen it already, this is worth the 44-some minutes to watch: Transcript HERE. President Obama didn’t pull any punches today in his speech on the nation’s budget and our path out of the massive debt and deficit we face today. Fully one-third of our budget is deficit spending yet only 12% of it is […]

The battle between backers of a new, publicly-owned bridge to Canada (including Governor Rick Snyder) and those who oppose it (including Manuel “Matty” Moroun, the owner of the current bridge, the Ambassador Bridge) just took a turn for the weird and expensive with Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity entering the fray: A pro-business, anti-government group known as Americans for Prosperity […]

Just to recap: Michigan Congressman Ray Franz is an idiot. Michigan Congressman Ray Franz is an idiot that wants to ban (BAN!) offshore wind energy in Michigan. While the rest of the world is diversifying their energy portfolio to include renewable energy sources, Michigan Congressman Ray Franz (an idiot) wants to take us backwards. Why does Congressman Franz want to […]